


To Prove Your Worth

by MsChievous



Series: Prompto Week 2017 [6]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Angst, Gen, He's a strong boi, Others are hurt, Prompto Proves Himself, Whump, badass prompto
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2019-01-22 12:15:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,859
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12481356
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsChievous/pseuds/MsChievous
Summary: Day 6 of Prompto Week: Favorite TraitAlso a fill forthiskinkmeme prompt.Prompto always does what he can to protect his friends.





	To Prove Your Worth

**Author's Note:**

> Just a heads up for regular followers of mine, I'm going to be posting the next chapter of "Keep it Together" on Wednesday instead of Tuesday, during the "free" prompt for Prompto Week.

Okay. So, this was bad. Like,  _ horrendously _ bad. On the plus side, all the gelatins were dead. They had completed the hunt, and could now afford the new weapons they needed. On the  _ minus _ side, literally everyone except Prompto was down.

He had been excited, at first, to see the last of the gelatins fall under his marksmanship. But that excitement quickly turned to dread when he saw the condition his friends were in. Noctis had been blown back into a pile of rubble and spent the entirety of the battle wandering around in a concussed haze. Ignis had gotten too close to Noctis in an attempt to heal him and ended up with more than a few bad cuts. And Gladio… Prompto hadn’t even  _ seen _ what happened to Gladio, but the shield was twitching on the ground, so it probably had something to do with the thundara spell Noctis had thrown.

Okay. So… so everyone was down. Except him. Okay. Potions. He had to give out potions, and probably some smelling salts for Noctis. Okay. he could do this.

He looked around. Okay, Noctis came first. He had a head injury. Those were bad. With shaking hands, Prompto reached into the Armiger, grasping for any curatives he could. His hand closed on a single vial, and he drew it out. Okay. One potion. That wasn’t going to do much, but it was something. 

Prompto heard a creaking noise behind them and whirled around. Shit, that’s right. The first concern was getting to safety. He remembered there being a haven across the river. He just needed to get three adult men there. Fuck daemons.

With a hiss, Prompto pulled the chocobo whistle from the Armiger. He would have to treat those birds extra well tonight since they made it easy for him to get even Gladio’s muscular frame situated properly. 

Unfortunately, his friends’ nonexistent grips on their chocobos meant they couldn’t travel faster than a brisk trot, and Prompto had to run alongside and catch his friends if they were starting to slip off. It was slightly difficult, especially with the daemons getting more active as the night wore on, but finally, Prompto managed to get everyone safely in the haven.

Okay. Step one, done. Step two, healing. 

He carefully laid everyone down and examined their injuries. Ignis  _ appeared _ the worst, but Noctis had hit his head  _ pretty _ hard, and he remembered in his emergency first aid treatments that a lot of head wounds can be fatal if not treated properly. And he didn’t even  _ know _ how badly Gladio had it. He was still breathing, and his heart was beating, but he was just… unconscious. 

He bit his lip. Who should he treat? If he treated Noctis, like he was taught, then he wouldn’t have a potion if Gladio took a turn for the worse. But if he gave it to Gladio, assuming Noctis was okay, what would happen if Noctis’ head wound was actually worse than he thought? And what about the risk of infection with Ignis’ wounds? Noctis had been killing  _ daemons _ with that sword. 

What should he do? 

His breath was coming more quickly. He had time to think and plan, and it was driving him mad. He wished Ignis was awake.  _ He  _ would know what to do. He would have a backup plan for this. Maybe he should give the potion to Ignis? 

No. Noctis came first. He had to help Noctis. The others were prepared to die for him. Prompto  _ hated _ doing it, but it was necessary. This was too far beyond him. 

He took a deep breath and forced Noctis to crush the potion. Prompto waited for a few heart-pounding moments before Noctis opened his eyes blearily. 

“...wha’...” Noctis mumbled, scrabbling a hand over to Prompto’s lap. 

“Hey, Noctis, how are you feeling?” Prompto asked, glancing over to Ignis. Ignis’ wounds looked  _ pretty bad _ .

Noctis only mumbled in response, but he tried to sit up, so maybe that was something?

“Okay. You need to stay here, okay? Just stay here. I’ll be right back, I just need to get water. Do you understand?” Prompto asked.

After a few seconds, Noctis replied, “...’kay…” 

So definitely a concussion, then. “I’ll be back soon.” Prompto hurried off to the nearby river with two water bottles in hand, and the purification tablets in his back pocket. He probably could have had Noctis do the purifying since the tablets took a couple minutes to work, but with Noctis’ concussion, it was more likely the prince would accidentally turn it into poison or something.

He managed to avoid an Iron Giant that started bubbling out of the ground behind him, running full-pelt towards the haven. He didn’t have time to collapse gratefully on the stone floor, however. He nudged Noctis to make sure the prince was awake, then carefully started pouring the purified river water into Ignis’s wounds. 

The advisor’s breath hitched, making Prompto wince. “Hey, Iggy, I know it hurts, buddy, but I gotta clean it up before I bandage it, okay?” He asked, brushing light brown locks out of the advisor’s face.

Once Prompto had cleaned and dressed Ignis’ wounds, he moved on to Gladio. The shield was still out cold, but his heartbeat was strong, and from a cursory listen, Prompto was pretty sure his airways were clear. That was a good sign, right? Yeah. Yeah, that was good.

He sat back on his heels taking a few deep breaths. Okay. He was doing okay. He was… he wasn’t sucking, so that was good. But Noctis was still so out of it, Prompto doubted he counted as fully conscious, and Ignis and Gladio hadn’t woken up yet.

He glanced back at where the Regalia was parked a ways away. He hadn’t been allowed to drive the car in a while, what with the whole incident with the dog, but... this was an emergency. He  _ needed _ to get more potions and elixirs for the others. Could he risk a trip at night? 

No, he  _ had _ to. He couldn’t move Ignis in the state he was in, and he didn’t want to risk leaving him alone. No, he had to go alone.

Prompto bit his lip uncertainty. It might not be the best move, hell, it might be a  _ stupid _ move, but he had to leave the others in the charge of a concussed prince. What could possibly go wrong? 

Oh, gods, they were all going to die.

“Noctis,” Prompto said, doing his best to keep his voice from wavering, “I want you to check on Ignis and Gladio every fifteen minutes, okay? Make sure they are both breathing. If at any point, they are  _ not _ breathing, call me, okay?”

Noctis stared dazedly at him for a few seconds before nodding slowly. “Go’ ‘t, Prommm. Y’ c’n coun’ on me,”

“Are you going to remember?” Prompto asked seriously.

Noctis just shrugged, which Prompto took to be a bad sign. Okay. This was okay. He could deal with this. “I’m going to call you every fifteen minutes, and I’m going to tell you to check their breathing and heartbeats.”

Noctis mumbled some kind of response and flopped on his side. 

“No, Noct, you need to stay awake, okay? I need you awake to help the others okay? You can go to sleep when I come back.”

“Yeah, ssslee’ soun’s gooood,” Noctis said.

“Look, I don’t have time for this. Just… just don’t die, please?” Prompto pleaded, turning to run to the Regalia. He spent precious seconds he wasn’t sure he had to adjust the seat and mirrors before quickly taking off. If his GPS was right, the closest place to buy curatives was Old Lestallum. With Ignis driving, it had taken almost two hours to get all the way to Malmalam Thicket. 

With Prompto, it took under and hour an a half. Or, it  _ would’ve _ , if he hadn’t needed to jump out of the car halfway through the trip to avoid an Iron Giant.

_ Shit _ . These things were hard enough to deal with when they had all four of them. Now, it was just him, and he was  _ tired _ . He couldn’t fight this thing head-on, he would die, and then who would care for the others? No, he had to run away.

But if he ran away, that would mean leaving the car behind. What  _ had _ been a half an hour long drive would turn into a 6-hour ride on chocobo, at best. He couldn’t leave his friends alone for twelve hours. He  _ had _ to use the car. But the daemon was just wandering back and forth along the highway.

Okay. So he can’t leave the car, and he can’t fight the daemon. What  _ could _ he do? He scratched his head anxiously, trying to think through his exhaustion. If he couldn’t fight the thing, he had to lure it away from the road and keep it there for a while.

He could actually do this if his plan worked. He was glad they had picked up that piece of machinery from the Aracheole Stronghold. He wasn’t sure how he’d do this otherwise.

With the stupid courage of a drunk high school student, Prompto leaped closer to the daemon, yelling, “Come and get me, asshole!”. Prompto quickly fired off a few shots to grab the daemon’s attention even more and danced out of the daemon’s path. 

Thankfully, the daemon lumbered after him slowly, swinging its giant sword in a haphazard pattern. 

Prompto kept up the game of cat-and-mouse, letting the daemon stay close enough so as to not lose interest, but still far enough away that Prompto had the advantage. It was a delicate line, but Prompto managed to play it well, avoiding to stave off any major injury.

But of  _ course _ , he had to jinx it.

Just as he had estimated the Iron Giant was far enough away from the road, the daemon reached out a hand towards him. Prompto leaped out of the way of what he expected to be a swat but was actually a wind-up for a magical attack. He barely had two seconds to realize what’s happening before he was being sucked into the gravitational attack.

Desperately, Prompto grabbed for the first weapon in the Armiger he could find, Gladio’s shield, and stabbed it into the ground. It hurt to hold onto the sharp edges, but if he let go, he would get crushed by the force of the attack, and he  _ really _ can’t risk that right now. So he grit his teeth and let the cold metal dig into his hands and draw blood.

Finally, the pull towards the daemon lessened, then disappeared completely, and Prompto collapsed to the ground. He was too close to the daemon, and he tried to roll away, but the giant’s sword came crashing down, and he couldn’t move fast enough. 

His left leg exploded in pain, but in the back of his mind, he  _ knew _ he had to keep going, so he rolled to his good leg and stood up. Before the daemon had time to attack again, Prompto summoned the gravity well, and in a feat of intense concentration, fired it off at the Iron Giant and booked it as fast as he could towards the Regalia. 

His injured leg  _ definitely _ made it harder than it ought to be, but his gravisphere attack seemed stronger than normal, keeping the daemon from moving even a step away.

_ Payback’s a bitch, isn’t it? _ Prompto thought smugly. Finally, he reached the Regalia and collapsed in the seat. He was so tired, and his leg hurt so  _ bad, _ but he couldn’t relax. He still had a half an hour or so before dawn, and he had already been sidetracked by the Iron Giant. He needed to get moving.

Thankfully, he managed to make it to Old Lestallum without further incident, save the sharp throbbing of his leg. Thankfully, the daemon’s sword hadn’t been sharp, or he would have lost the leg, but it was still broken and arguably more painful.

He managed to hobble to the Crow’s Nest to turn in their hunt, ignoring the waiter’s concern about him returning alone. He needed to get potions, so he stumbled over to the shopkeeper, shoving the entire 5,920 gil at her and mumbling something about curatives.

She looked at him in concern. “You okay, honey? What kind of curatives do you want? I have potions, elixirs -”

“Ten potions, five hi-potions and elixirs,” Prompto managed. “And two phoenix downs.”

The woman nods at him uncertainly. “That will be five thousand gil, then,” She said. 

Prompto just shook his handful of money at her. “Jus…” He blinked back a wave of dizziness.  _ Not good _ . “Jus’ give me the change.”

She gives Prompto a worried look, but complies, handing him back the rest of the hunt money. “Be careful, sir,” she said.

With a nod, Prompto hurried back to the car. It was already 5 in the morning, and he had left the others alone for three whole hours. This wasn’t good. Worry gnawed at his gut as he dialed Noctis’ phone number.

“‘Ello?” Noctis sounded groggy, but his words weren’t as slurred. “Prom? Wher’re you?”

“I’m in Old Lestallum. I’m driving back now. Be there in like an hour and a half. But I just need you to make sure both Ignis and Gladio are breathing. Can you do that?” 

While Noctis shuffled around, presumably checking on the others. “Yeah, they’re okay. Why’re you at Old Lestallum?” 

“I’m just getting potions for the others. I’ll be back soon,” Prompto replied, pushing the Regalia to over the speed limits in his rush to get back to the others. “How is your head feeling?”

“Ngh, it’s like Titan’s screaming at me again,” He groaned. “And I’m really tired and the sun’s really bright.”

Prompto managed a laugh, “Just keep an eye on the others. I’ll be there soon.”

Noctis just groaned out a reply.

 

***

 

Less than an hour and a half later, Prompto managed to scramble out of the Regalia, biting back a yelp when he stumbled onto his bad leg. Fuck, he was so tired, his eyes were drooping, and he probably would’ve been okay with dropping down right there for a nap if the others weren’t relying on him.

He managed to limp all the way up to the haven as quickly as he physically could, falling to his knees in front of Ignis and Gladio. The action jarred his leg, but he pushed the pain away. Ignis’ bandages were splotched with reddish-brown blood, and Prompto’s heart leaped into his throat. Carefully, he unwrapped the bandages. 

There was no pus or redness, and Ignis didn’t have a fever, so it didn’t seem infected. That was good. That was  _ really _ good. It meant he could use the potions right away. He turned to Noctis, who was staring dazedly at his phone.

“Noct?” He asked, “Can you give Gladio a hi-potion and see if he comes to?”

Dimly, Noctis nodded, crawling over to the fallen shield. While Prompto cracked open a couple elixirs and poured them on Ignis’ wounds, the prince forced his shield to crush a hi-potion. 

He heard a shuffling behind him and Gladio’s groan as the elixir healed up the worst of Ignis’ wounds. Now, Prompto just had to worry about the blood loss. He didn’t know how much blood was too much blood, but there was a  _ worrying _ amount of rust-colored blood on those bandages, and Prompto was not cut out to handle all of the first aid like this. Ignis needed to wake up and help, and-

“Prompto? What happened?” Gladio’s voice came from behind, nearly making the blond jump. 

“Gladio! You’re okay?” Prompto whirled to look Gladio up and down. 

“Yeah, why? What - “ A groan from the haven floor turned their attention to where Ignis was slowly starting to open his eyes. 

“Ignis!” Oh, gods, this was too good to be true. No one seemed to be in any danger of dying. Had… had he actually averted a crisis?  _ Him? _ “Ignis, how are you feeling?”

Slowly, Ignis sat up, relying heavily on Prompto and Gladio. “I… I am a little dizzy, but otherwise unharmed,” he replied. “Though I’m not so keen on getting close to Noctis again.”

Prompto let out a breathy laugh as Noctis whined out a pitiful, “Hey!”

Thank the gods. Everyone was okay. He did well. He could sleep now.

“...ompto?” 

Dazedly, Prompto glanced up. “Yeah?”

“Prompto, is your  _ leg _ broken?” Ignis’ voice was tight with worry.

“Oh, yeah,” Prompto said, furrowing his eyebrow. “Yeah.”

“What the hell? Prompto, we need to get you to a hospital!”

That sounded like so much  _ work _ . He just wanted to sleep. “‘Mkay,” he mumbled, leaning forward onto Ignis’ shoulder. “In the morning.”

Suddenly, he found himself being scooped up. If he hadn't been so exhausted and in so much pain, he probably would have yelped. But he just let himself melt into Gladio’s arms, turning his head to rest against the Shield’s chest.

“Good thing its morning, then, isn’t it?”

But Prompto was already fast asleep in Gladio’s arms.

**Author's Note:**

> Also, fun fact, I turn 21 today and am going to celebrate by watching FFXV Kingsglaive with my friends and more than a little alcohol because oh GOD the pain. 
> 
> I'll note any funny moments (which, with my roommates, is more than likely) and put 'em on my [tumblr](https://stuck-in-ffxv-hell.tumblr.com/)


End file.
